1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a method and apparatus for providing Internet advertising service. More specifically, this invention relates to the implementation of a timer mechanism which increases both the number of visitors to a sponsor website and the quality of those particular visits.
2. Description of Related Art
For many years, the global retail market has been characterized as a market in which physical products are sold from physical locations. In recent years, however, this dynamic has undergone a significant change in response to the increasing popularity of the Internet and in particular with the increasing popularity of advertising on the Internet. It should be appreciated that the Internet is defined here as a collection of interconnected (public and/or private) networks linked together by a set of standard protocols (such as TCP/IP and HTTP) to form a global, distributed network. While this term is intended to refer to what is now commonly known as the Internet, it is also intended to encompass variations which may be made in the future, including changes and additions to existing standard protocols.
Many websites are supported by business models that rely heavily if not entirely on generating revenue from the sale of advertising. In particular, these websites are paid by sponsors according to the number of clicks made by website visitors on these sponsor advertisements. Therefore, a decline in the number of clicks a particular sponsor advertisement receives directly translates to a loss in revenue for the host website. As the Internet becomes increasingly more commercial though, these websites are having a more difficult time selling advertisements due to a substantial reduction in a website visitor's willingness to click on these advertisements. A primary reason for this reluctance is the simple fact that website advertisements are now so common. Moreover, as website visitors become more aware of particular types of advertisements they are much more inclined to ignore them.
A further problem exists in that all clicks on a sponsor's advertisement are not equally valuable to that sponsor. In general, the greater the amount of time a visitor spends on a sponsor website, the more valuable that visitor becomes to the sponsor. A need in the industry therefore exists to create an incentive for website visitors to not only click on a sponsor's advertisement, but then, once they have been sent to that sponsor's website, to spend enough time on that sponsor's website to evaluate the offer being presented by that particular advertisement. In this way, the sponsor can realize the maximum value from each click and thus receive what is commonly known in the industry as “high quality traffic”. Furthermore, the advertising website can charge the sponsor a higher price for its advertisement space as the website continually receives this higher quality traffic.